


Seeing Your Ex Happy

by AvengersCompound (emilyevanston)



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alcohol, Angst, Casual Sex, Clint Barton Bingo 2019, Drunk Sex, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Female Reader, Heavy Drinking, M/M, Moving On, Multi, No character hate, Past Relationship(s), Polyamory, Post-Break Up, Reader-Insert, no ship hate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:55:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23426587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emilyevanston/pseuds/AvengersCompound
Summary: Pepper walks in on you, Tony, and Clint together after her and Tony’s break-up.  She doesn’t take it very well, and you and Clint try and mend some fences.square filled:@clintbartonbingoG2 Pepper Potts
Relationships: Clint Barton/Tony Stark/Reader, Tony Stark/Pepper Potts (past)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 46
Collections: Clint Barton Bingo





	Seeing Your Ex Happy

Tony had kept saying he had to go to work. It was imperative he goes in today. There was absolutely no way he could miss work today. It was important. Serious things were at stake.

You objectively knew that to be true. Things had been a mess, to put it mildly. The breakup he’d had with Pepper had been tough. Not that you’d seen that part. You’d gotten to him by the time it had reached dumpster-fire proportions.

It wasn’t that anyone was to blame. You knew first hand what it was like dating a superhero. You were dating two after all. Seeing the person you love - someone who was just as fragile and human as you - go out and risk their lives again and again and again - was tough. In the end, Tony had broken his promise to stop one too many times for Pepper to handle and she’d left.

People grow apart. It happens. No one was to blame. Still, it had been painful and Tony wore his pain like a festering open wound. It had been difficult because Pepper still ran his company. So that time you need apart to heal just never came. They kept lashing out at each other any time something stressful happened.

Time heals all wounds - or so they say. And for a little while, it was getting better. Then Clint had forced Tony to go out drinking. To get back up on the horse so to speak. That’s when the normal garbage you have to deal with when you break up with someone but you still have to see them regularly had caught fire.

Tony and Clint were… well… cut from the same cloth. That cloth was made out of something self-destructive and very fond of sex. The first few times of going out drinking together had been just that. They’d gotten drunk, flirted (with other people and each other) and then come home.

Then they’d met you.

That’s when all bets had been taken off the table. What had been a friend trying to help take the other’s mind of a painful break up had been two guys getting a little competitive for one woman’s attention. Which had been more than a little flattering for you. Then things had gotten weird and you’d all ended up waking up all tangled together in the same bed with very little memory of how exactly you’d gotten there.

There had been an agreement that whatever had happened the night before should never be spoken about and definitely should never happen again. You’d gone home not expecting to ever see another Avenger in person again.

Only the next day you’d woken up in the exact same place. It hadn’t just been a ‘you and them’ situation though. They were equally as into each other as they were with you. Whatever had happened when they met you just seemed to open up the potential for anything at all. None of you could quite explain it, but that might be simply because none of you could remember it.

You were happy though. They seemed to be too. Your two disaster men. Not broken. Just bent.

Except that the rumors of Tony’s backslide into his old playboy days had hit the press almost immediately. Photos of the night of debauchery that none of you could remember came out. Nothing explicit. Just pictures of the three of you holding hands and kissing and some of them taking shots off of you. But it wasn’t like you’d accidentally released a sex tape or anything. Inside your bubble together, you, Tony, and Clint were as happy as three peas in a pod. Outside the flame had been sparked.

Like with most people who see their ex move on before they do, Pepper had been hurt. Worse though, in her eyes, he had moved on by sliding back. She’d told him in no uncertain terms that she couldn’t watch as he destroyed himself. He had called her jealous. She had said she quit.

Pepper was a good person though. Too good really. If it had been you, you would have just left. Despite the pain it caused her seeing Tony with you and Clint, she had said she’d stay until Tony had found someone who would take over the reins of the company. It had taken a full year for them to find someone and train them and have him be totally sure he trusted them not to sink his company or turn it back into what it was.

Today was supposed to be the day the reins were publically handed over and Pepper got to leave and start her new job and new life that had nothing to do with Tony Stark.

He had to be there for that. You knew that. He knew that. Even Clint knew that. But he didn’t want to, and Clint was having far too much fun distracting him. When he’d go to stand Clint would grab his hand and kiss his neck, begging him for five minutes more.

It didn’t really take a lot to distract him and those five minutes ended up being closer to five hours. Clint was good at that. He could make you forget the important meeting or the party you’d been looking forward to. He had this special blend of idiocy, vulnerability, and amazing hands that just made time irrelevant.

So when Pepper barged through the front door it was a surprise, to say the least.

“Tony! Where were you? How dare you do…” Her voice carried down the hall and then stopped dead as she came into the living room.

The three of you had been cuddled up together, your legs over Tony’s lap, Clint had one leg behind Tony and the other over yours. They had been kissing when Pepper had stormed in, Tony mumbling into Clint’s lips about needing to leave as you nipped as his throat. You all froze and looked up at Pepper like a trio of deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck.

“Right. Of course, this is what you would be doing. Same old Tony, right? Can’t show up to an important event has to be because he’s drunk or in an orgy or both,” Pepper snapped. “Not even when it’s important to me. Well, thank you very much.”

“Pep…” Tony said softly.

“Forget it. I had hoped the part I’d fallen in love with might rear its head long enough to say something nice about me leaving and show a unified front to the world. I guess that part isn’t there anymore,” she hissed. “Well, don’t worry about it. Goodbye, Tony. I hope you have a nice life.”

She spun on her heel and stormed off. Tony blinked at the void in the room that she used to occupy and Clint jumped to his feet. He grabbed your hand and tugged on it. “Come on. We gotta fix this,” he said. You got to your feet and Tony went to get up too. “No, Tones, stay here. Let us try and explain.”

Tony nodded and you and Clint chased after Pepper. 

“Pepper,” you called as you caught sight of the redhead hitting the call button for the elevator.

She ignored you and just started stabbing at the button harder.

“Pepper,” Clint said gently. “It’s me. You know me.”

Pepper spun around, rubbing her red-rimmed eyes. “He should be chasing after me. Not you.”

“We stopped him,” you said.

“Pepper. This is my fault. All of it,” Clint said. “It’s my fault that he went out drinking. It’s my fault this-“ he indicated between the two of you. “- happened. It’s my fault he didn’t go out today. But please … you gotta know. No one did this to hurt you.”

“Yeah, well it did. It did hurt me. And you can’t take that back,” Pepper snapped.

“I don’t want to. I’m in love with him,” Clint said. Pepper stared at him like he’d just slapped her in the face. “When the two of you broke up, he was broken. He was drinking again and he wasn’t going out. Rhodey couldn’t even get through to him. So I thought maybe if he could just have a night where he didn’t think about what he lost when he lost you. And we had fun. So we did it again and again and he was starting to be… not good … but okay. And then we met this little minx and okay started to move to good. I know that’s not easy to see. Not when you’re still not okay. But we all want you to be good too. This isn’t about him being some sexual deviant, Pep. I love him. And I want him to be good.”

Pepper shifted on her feet and folded her arms over her chest. “That doesn’t excuse today.”

“He woke up today and it was like he was getting ready to go to a funeral,” Clint said. “He was…”

“Grieving,” you finished. “It was bad. He doesn’t want to drive you away but he knows he has and it’s killing him.”

“So we… well I… tried to cheer him up. I guess time got away from us. He did keep saying he needed to leave,” Clint explained.

Pepper let out a breath and shook her head. “Today was important.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I really am,” Clint said. “Please don’t take that out on him.”

“What does it matter, Clint? I won’t be seeing him again,” she said sounding defeated. The elevator doors opened behind her and she turned and stepped in. She caught the door as it was about to close and looked directly at you. “I hope you can handle what being with them means.”

You frowned a little and took Clint’s hand as the doors slid closed again.

“Well, that went well,” you said.

Clint shook his head. “Could have been worse. She’s hurt. It’s her right. Sucks when your ex moves on first.”

You nodded and the two of you went back into the penthouse. Tony was sitting on the couch looking up expectantly at you both. “What did she say?” He asked.

You took a seat on either side of him and Clint ran his hand up into the back of Tony’s hair, making him close his eyes and hum. “She said that she forgives you and hopes that you find what makes you happy,” Clint lied.

Tony smiled a little and nuzzled into Clint’s neck as he wrapped his arm around you and pulled you closer. Sometimes that’s what was needed. Just a white lie and the people you were falling for so you could finally move on.


End file.
